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NASA ">The crew included a veteran NASA astronaut Ron Garan, and two new cosmonauts named Andrey Borisenko, and Alexander Samokutyaev. The space flyers lifted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome at 6:18 p.m. EDT (2218 GMT), on the Soyuz TMA-21 spacecraft commonly known as Gagarin. The space carrier has been named after the Soviet cosmonaut, Yuri Gagarin. The three space men are scheduled to stay on the International Space Station for six months. They will be joining the other three members, who are already living in the orbiting laboratory. About Ron Garan Ron Garan is an American astronaut, who lives in Yonkers, New York. This will be his second trip to space, as he had earlier traveled to space in space shuttle Discovery on STS-124 mission, in 2008. Ron will be joining the crew as an Expedition 27 and Expedition 28 flight engineer. While addressing SPACE.com, Ron said, “It's going to be a sad day when it's retired. I think it's going to be many generations before we have the capability that the space shuttle provides us right now. It's an amazing vehicle.” About Andrey Borisenko Andrey was selected as a cosmonaut in May 2003, and this will be his first trip to space. Andrey Borisenko will serve as a flight engineer in Expedition 27, and after that he will change his role to commander of Expedition 28 in May. Borisenko said, “I greatly look forward to the flight itself. I think every minute of our flight will bring something new and something amazing. From what I have heard from other crewmembers, it is quite possible that the six-month increment will fly by as one minute.” About Alexander Samokutyaev Alexander Samokutyaev, the third member of the crew will be making his maiden trip to the space. He will be commanding the Soyuz to the International Space Station. Alexander said that it was an honor for him to fly Gagarin, as during his childhood, he was highly impressed by Gagarin's groundbreaking Vostok 1 mission. Samokutyaev said, "I was born 10 years after flight of Yuri Gagarin. All I know is based on what I heard. Quite often thousands of people would gather on the streets to listen to the radio. Everyone back then wanted to become cosmonauts.” The three crew members of the Gagarin will spend most of their time running the station, and carrying out scientific research. For more information check out NASA
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